


Truths and Lies

by taichara



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 05:43:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6143353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It seems as if someone else may have taken notice of Seiji's state of mind.  </p>
<p>Or, something like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truths and Lies

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _"Still afraid of the dark, I see."_

It was the dead of night. The dead of night, and a single pale light flickered in a second-story room whose windows were battered by branches as the wind rose, promising a touch of winter's bite before the sun rose again ...

Tonight Seiji was not sleeping.

He'd started at his desk, hunched over nearly translucent papers -- a handful of letters that should have been sent days, weeks ago -- but had given up that post, retreated to his bed, and knew it to _be_ a retreat. 

Now he crouched, half kneeling, on the downy coverlets, staring at nothingness. The room was filled with _nothing_ ; nothing out of the ordinary, not a hair changed from an hour past, and yet the threat was there.

The threat closed in with the night-time, and it made the lamp-light look like, _feel_ like, the feeblest of weapons to hold that threat at bay. Tense, eyes narrowed, Seiji scanned the inky shadows that danced just beyond the lamp's pale reach, danced close enough to rustle his nightclothes and brush against his skin, and he moved to draw some unseen blade --

_: Is this all it would take, Halo? :_

\-- the shadows darkened, multiplied around him; in their depths he saw a flicker of barbed armour, the glint of a blade's tip, the movements of some massive beast --

_: Is that fear I can taste on you? :_

_: Why haven't you drawn your sword? :_

Seiji's pale eyes glinted; his hand clenched, as he forced it to his side.

"I have no --"

_: No reason? Is that what you're about to claim, to me? :_

_: Here I am, a violator of your own domain, and you attempt to deflect so weakly? :_

Another shiver in the darkness, a glimpse of a ruined eye -- but, wait -- like ink painted on black lacquer, there and gone in an eyeblink. 

Despite himself Seiji brought himself into ready stance once more, trying to ignore the touch of darkness across his back, coiling against his legs ... and the lamp over his desk seemed so very far away. He reached out, reluctant; searching, scanning, and the shadows rippled with amusement.

_: Do they know? Have you exchanged words -- pleasantries, even -- since that day? Would you show them this weakness I lay bare? :_

_: Myself and what I bring here and all that we stood for, Halo, is it all these things? :_

_: Or is all this -- :_

The darkness loomed like black fires, threatened to consume the room, the bed, Seiji, his soul, everything --

_: -- no more than a reflection of what you suspect lurks inside yourself. :_

_: Yourself. The sword. The power Halo granted you. :_

_: You are afraid. :_

"And _you_ should be dead and gone, Anubis. Take your shadows and get out of here."

Seiji spat the name, defiant and furious now; but the shadows only laughed, truly laughed, a low rumble that made the room shiver and Seiji's head spin ...

_: Anubis? :_

The laughter deepened still.

_: When did Anubis ever care to look into your heart? :_

Now the room itself began to spin; the shadows flickered, danced, rippling like a flicker of blades or a thousand scuttling legs.

_: I'll give you time to study what I've kindly cut open for you, Halo._

_: Perhaps you should send those letters lying neglected there; perhaps with a postscript. :_

Then shadows, laughter, tension, threat; all faded from existence like gossamer silks torn by the wind ... 

And Seiji, slumping to one knee, stared at the little lamp with a good deal, indeed, to think about.


End file.
